Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphis Redbirds!

Small Ball at AZP

As an intern for the Redbirds, apart from Opening Day, there is isn’t anything more highly-anticipated than the Staff vs. Intern Baseball Game. And it finally came. Thursday.

Though the intern team has only beaten the full-timers once in the game’s nine-year history, the ’09 Interns had high hopes. Calm and collected Manager Wassel placed the interns’ five former baseball players (be-it college, high school or intramural) at the front of the 12-man line-up.

‘Play Ball’ was shouted at around 3:30 P.M. by umpire Ed Collins and the 10th Annual Staff / Intern Game was underway.

The full-timers scored one run in the first inning when Kyle Parkinson (yes, the bloggers’ boss, of course), who reached base on single to center field, was driven in by a sacrifice fly by Harrison Lampley.

Nick Cataldi hit the game’s only triple in the top of the fourth for the interns and scored on center fielder Phil Simon‘s sac fly. The score eliminated any chance of there being an embarrassing shutout loss (honestly, we probably wouldn’t have blogged about that – or I’d let Ben write it, because he is very good at putting our many short-comings into words), and leveled the score 1-1.

This was the first time the interns really believed they might be able to pull off the long-shot victory. However, any dreams of conquering the full-timers were quickly thwarted in the bottom of the fourth, when they put up four more runs to make it 5-1.

Six consecutive hits from the top of the order paved the way for the team’s four-run inning.

The full-timers added one more to their lead in the fifth when intern second baseman Cory Shedd, in an attempt to turn the double-play, committed a throwing error to first that allowed Corey Gillum to score.

The interns’ final push came in the sixth when the team crafted three runs out of five hits. The inning ended with a play at the plate, after Joe Rejc belted a double over left fielder Nelson Padro’s head.

Cataldi safely scored from second on the play, but Phil Simon had to beat the throw to home-plate delivered by cut-off man Valentin.

Some say Simon was safe and scored; others, like umpire Collins, disagree.

The photo is ambiguous, so you can see just how close of a call had to be made in real-time. Also, disregard the ball on the ground, that is from a different pitch.

The inning ended, along with any of the interns’ realistic chances of winning, with hitters six, seven and eight coming up in the seventh. The interns, or ‘Assistants’ as their shirts and business cards read, hadn’t given up just yet.

Everyone has a classic underdog story that they retreat to in times like these for motivation. And I went straight to mine, recalling Buddy, the golden retriever from Air Bud: Seventh-Inning Fetch; who, even without opposable thumbs, comes back to help the Angels win the World Series all-the-while saving his missing puppies from the antagonist Rocky Racoon. Man, that dog could rake.

Anyways…

Possibly agitated that his home-plate slide was ruled an out, intern outfielder Simon made the play of the game in the next inning; a running and diving catch to record the second out.

“I dedicate my catch to Shane Robinson,” said Simon of his center field mentor.

Unfortunately the intern team went 1-2-3 at the plate in the seventh, making it officially a 6-4 loss.

KP dominated almost every stat category, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs. Simon had a game-high two RBI.

Though they didn’t lead their team in anything except maybe cleanest uniforms, the Communications Interns did their part and went 2-for-5, each with a single.

“They definitely were the surprise of the game,” said proud boss and player of the day Kyle Parkinson.

On the mound, Ben White led all pitchers with two strikeouts to teammate Leigh Eisenberg.

The Redbirds clubbies combined to go 5-for-12 with one RBI, third baseman Celso Callado leading the way with a 1.000 batting average. None of the clubbies were available to interview, except Karasek, but trust me, that would have only been a waste of time.

All in all, everyone had fun; but deep down we all know what would have happened if we had have played nine innings. Youth would have prevailed. Alas. Good luck intern class of 2010.

A very special thank you to our brave photographer Allison Rhoades for taking these photos.

Check out the box score below. Click to make bigger. Print to show your friends.

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